Carrot Cake Pancakes with Cream Cheese Icing (Gluten-Free)

My kids love pancakes. I love pancakes too, simply because I can hide fruit or veggies without the kids knowing its there. When we had to go gluten-free last summer due to allergies, we sadly stopped eating pancakes. Our breakfast routine became really boring – eggs and sausage, eggs and bacon, repeat. My 6-year-old doesn’t even like eggs anymore because I’ve made them way too many times.

On a recent shopping trip at Costco, I got really excited when I saw this gluten-free flour mix. I grabbed it with Christmas cookies in mind, which turned out amazing. I’ve found this is a perfect replacement for standard all-purpose flour and therefore the glorious pancake has returned to our breakfast menu!

I keep preparing vegetables for dinner, wondering if this will be the time my kids decide they like it and eat it all. It is never that time. So the other morning I had a surplus of steamed carrots in my refrigerator and decided to try out a carrot cake pancake and get them to eat all the carrots. Thank God for food processors which enable me to get away with my sneaky health-food-mongering.

I feel like I hit the jackpot with this recipe, only because the taste of the cinnamon plus the cream cheese icing tastes like a freakin’ Cinnabon! A healthy Cinnabon, are you kidding me. Heaven has arrived on Earth. It may just be my pregnancy talking, but anything that is clean, real food and tastes like a Cinnabon is worth making weekly. My kids really enjoy this breakfast treat, and I hope your family will too!

Ingredients for the icing:
3 oz. cream cheese
2 tbsp raw, local honey
a splash of warm water

Directions:

Place all ingredients for the pancakes in a food processor. Blend until smooth.

Spoon batter onto a heated and greased pan. Flip once the bottom edges begin to look cooked. These pancakes are rather thick so press down on the cooked side with the spatula to help cook the inside of the pancake.

To make the icing, place cream cheese in a bowl and blend with a fork until it becomes soft. Add honey and blend thoroughly. Add warm water and blend to desired consistency.